Why felons cant vote

Journal of Southern History, 75 4 , For example, party leaders in Mississippi called for disenfranchisement for offenses such as burglary, theft, and arson, but not for robbery or murder. Mass imprisonment and the disappearing voters. In Mauer, M. The New Press. Such policies would endure for over a century. Challenging criminal disenfranchisement under the Voting Rights Act: A new strategy. Yale Law Journal, 2 , Whether or not felony disenfranchisement laws today are intended to reduce the political clout of communities of color, this is their undeniable effect.

Disenfranchisement policies have met occasional legal challenges in the last century. In Richardson v. Ramirez, U. Under Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment, a state cannot restrict voting rights unless it shows a compelling state interest. Nevertheless, the U. By this logic, the Equal Protection Clause in the previous section could not have been intended to prohibit such disenfranchisement policies.

Critics argue that the language of the Fourteenth Amendment does not indicate that the exemptions established in Section 2 should prohibit the application of the Equal Protection Clause to voting rights cases.

Justice Rehnquist: A preliminary view. Harvard Law Review, 90 2 , American constitutional law 2nd ed. Foundation Press. Therefore, even if the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment seemingly accepted felony disenfranchisement, our interpretation of the Equal Protection Clause today should allow for the ways in which our concept of equality may have evolved since As states began expanding voting rights in the civil rights era, the disenfranchisement rate dropped between and Although reform efforts have been substantial in recent years, the number of people disenfranchised because of a felony conviction increased dramatically, rising from 1.

Some jurisdictions have even begun to address voting in prison. In , Washington, DC became the first jurisdiction to restore voting rights for people in prison and legislators in Oregon are considering similar legislation.

Law Restore the Vote Amendment Act of In order to strengthen democracy and address significant racial disparities, The Sentencing Project supports establishing universal voting for all citizens impacted by the criminal legal system. Expanding voting rights to all citizens in the era of mass incarceration. Public opinion surveys report that a clear majority of U.

In a Pew Research Center survey, a majority of both Democrats and Republicans supported re-enfranchisement. How Americans view some of the voting policies approved at the ballot box.

Fact Tank: Pew Research Center. Public attitudes towards felon disenfranchisement in the United States. Public Opinion Quarterly, 68 2 , In recent years, heightened public awareness of voting restrictions has resulted in successful state-level reform efforts, from legislative changes expanding voting rights to grassroots voter registration initiatives targeting individuals with felony convictions.

Expanding the vote: Two decades of felony disenfranchisement reforms. Among these:. In Ewald, A. Criminal disenfranchisement in an international perspective pp. Cambridge University Press. While in the United States, only Maine, Vemont, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico allow citizens to vote from prison, the European Court of Human Rights determined in that a blanket ban on voting from prison violates the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the right to free and fair elections.

United Kingdom No. Indeed, almost half of European countries allow all incarcerated individuals to vote, facilitating voting within the prison or by absentee ballot. Voting rights and human rights: A comparative analysis of criminal disenfranchisement laws. Rottinghaus Eds. In Canada, Israel, and South Africa, constitutional courts have ruled that any conviction-based restriction of voting rights is unconstitutional. Research suggests that restoring voting rights to people impacted by the criminal legal system could aid their transition back into community life.

The revocation of voting rights for people with felony convictions compounds isolation from communities, even though civic participation has been linked with lower recidivism rates. Voting and subsequent crime and arrest: Evidence from a community sample. Columbia Human Rights Law Review, 36 1 , The dramatic growth of the U. Nationwide, these policies disenfranchised an estimated 5. Disenfranchisement policies vary widely by state, ranging from no restrictions on voting to a lifetime ban upon conviction.

Voting rights restrictions have potentially affected the outcomes of U. Nationwide, as of one in every 16 Black adults could not vote as the result of a felony conviction, and in seven states more than one in seven Black adults was disenfranchised. Felony disenfranchisement laws remain a serious structural barrier to racial justice in this country. Denying the right to vote to an entire class of citizens is deeply problematic, undemocratic, and counterproductive to effective reentry.

Fortunately, many states are reconsidering their archaic disenfranchisement policies, with half of states and the District of Columbia enacting reforms since But there is still much to be done before the United States will resemble comparable nations in allowing, honoring and promoting the full democratic participation of its citizens.

This change is subject to ongoing litigation. In December , Governor Beshear signed an executive order restoring the right to vote for more than , Kentuckians who have completed their sentences for nonviolent felonies other than treason or election bribery related convictions. Those not meeting these criteria, or convicted of federal felonies, or felonies in other states, may still petition for restoration from the Governor.

Beginning in , then-Governor McAuliffe has processed individual restorations on a monthly basis, automatically restoring voting rights to those convicted of felonies who have completed their sentences. The current Governor has continued this practice. People in prison cannot vote.

Felony Disenfranchisement Laws Map. Click any highlighted state to learn more. Map Data: Show map data Scroll for details on each state. Iowa Some people with felony convictions cannot vote. Wyoming Some people with felony convictions cannot vote.

All others convicted of felonies cannot vote unless pardoned. Washington State People with felony convictions can vote upon completion of sentence. People with felony convictions can vote upon completion of sentence. New York People in prison and on parole cannot vote. In , Governor Cuomo issued an executive order to restore voting rights to those on parole. Colorado People in prison cannot vote. Everyone else can vote.

Maine Everyone has the right to vote. Everyone has the right to vote. Nevada People in prison cannot vote. Oregon People in prison cannot vote. Montana People in prison cannot vote. North Dakota People in prison cannot vote. Utah People in prison cannot vote. Hawaii People in prison cannot vote.

California restored voting rights to people serving time for felony convictions in jails though not prisons in Colorado and Nevada authorized voting rights for residents on parole in Maryland , Louisiana , and New Jersey reenfranchised people serving probation and parole terms. States typically provide some limited mechanism for disenfranchised persons to restore their right to vote. These vary greatly in scope, eligibility requirements, and reporting practices. It is thus difficult to obtain consistent information about the rate and number of disenfranchised Americans whose rights are restored through these generally administrative procedures.

Nevertheless, we contacted each of the appropriate state agencies by email and phone and compiled the information they made available to us in Table 2. These numbers provides some information about the frequency of state restoration of rights — outside of law changes regarding eligibility — in those 11 states that disenfranchise beyond sentence completion. Even accounting for these restorations, it is clear that restoration of voting rights is rare in most states.

The states reporting the greatest number of restorations since — Iowa, Kentucky, and Virginia — have had executive orders that re-enfranchised large categories of people who had completed their sentences. Indeed, some states have significantly curtailed restoration efforts since , including Florida.

Table 2 shows restorations of voting rights from to the most recent year available for restorations in previous years, see Uggen, Larson, and Shannon, This report provides new state-level estimates on felony disenfranchisement for in the United States to update those provided by Uggen, Larson, and Shannon for previous years. In Tables 3 and 4, we provide state-specific point estimates of the disenfranchised population and African American disenfranchised population, subject to the caveats described below.

Despite significant legal changes in recent decades, about 5. When we break these figures down by race and ethnicity, it is clear that disparities in the criminal justice system are linked to disparities in political representation. The distribution of disenfranchised individuals shown in Figure 1 also bears repeating: about one-fourth of this population is currently incarcerated, and about 4 million adults who live in their communities are banned from voting.

Of this total, 1. In addition, the prison, probation, parole, and jail populations we report for are also estimated, based on year-end data and the recent state-specific trends in each state. With these caveats in mind, the results reported here present our best account of the prevalence of U. These estimates will be adjusted if and when we discover errors or omissions in the data compiled from individual states, U. Census and Bureau of Justice Statistics sources, or in our own spreadsheets and estimation procedures.

Nevertheless, readers should bear in mind that our state specific figures for the 11 states that bar individuals from voting after they have completed their sentences remain point estimates rather than actual head counts. Click here for state estimates of disenfranchised individuals with felony convictions. Click here for state estimates of disenfranchised African Americans with felony convictions.

Click here for state estimates of disenfranchised Latinx Americans with felony convictions. Langan, Patrick and Mark Cunniff. Washington: Bureau of Justice Statistics. Love, Margaret, and David Schlussel. Who Must Pay to Regain the Vote? A State Survey. Collateral Consequences Research Center. Manza, Jeff and Christopher Uggen. New York: Oxford University Press. McLeod, Morgan. McNeil, Walter. Porter, Nicole D. Uggen, Christopher and Jeff Manza.

In the past 25 years, half the states have changed their laws and practices to expand voting access to people with felony convictions. Despite these important reforms, 5. Overview In this presidential election year, the question of voting restrictions, and their disproportionate impact on Black and Brown communities, should receive greater public attention.

Our key findings include the following: As of , an estimated 5. There were an estimated 1. One out of 44 adults — 2. Individuals who have completed their sentences in the eleven states that disenfranchise at least some people post-sentence make up most 43 percent of the entire disenfranchised population, totaling 2.

Rates of disenfranchisement vary dramatically by state due to broad variations in voting prohibitions. In three states — Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee — more than 8 percent of the adult population, one of every thirteen people, is disenfranchised. We estimate that nearly , Floridians who have completed their sentences remain disenfranchised, despite a ballot referendum that promised to restore their voting rights.

One in 16 African Americans of voting age is disenfranchised, a rate 3. Over 6. African American disenfranchisement rates vary significantly by state. In seven states — Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wyoming — more than one in seven African Americans is disenfranchised, twice the national average for African Americans.

Although data on ethnicity in correctional populations are still unevenly reported, we can conservatively estimate that over , Latinx Americans or over 2 percent of the voting eligible population are disenfranchised. Approximately 1. State Disenfranchisement Law To compile estimates of disenfranchised populations, we take into account new U.

Table 1. California — In , lawmakers restored voting rights to people convicted of a felony offense housed in jail, but not in prison. That year, officials authorized persons sentenced to prison to be released to probation rather than parole, affirming voting rights for residents under felony community supervision.

New York — In , Governor Cuomo reviewed and restored voting rights to persons currently on parole via executive order. There is currently no assurance that this practice will continue, however, so New York is listed as a state that continues to disenfranchise people on parole. Louisiana — In , authorized voting for residents under an order of imprisonment for a felony who have not been incarcerated for five years, including those on probation and parole. Arizona — Permanently disenfranchises persons with two or more felony convictions.

In , removed the requirement to pay outstanding fines before rights are automatically restored for first time felony offenses only.